This feels like a culmination.
Spelunking Through Hell is book 11 of a series about a family of cryptozoologists - monster scientists and preservationists. It switches POV every few books and some are more interconnected than others. The events that led to this one really kicked off at the end of book 5, which started a domino chain through books 6, 7, and 8, with books 9 and 10 detouring slightly. In addition to the novels, there's a bunch of short stories and novellas - some released for free on the author's website, other in anthologies or on Patreon - detailing past generations. I can't tell you how well this one stands on its own because it stands SO WELL with its prequels, drawing two straight lines from the current continuity and the past that got us here to the culmination of what feels like a lot of things.
Thematically, it's a quest. Alice Healy has been hunting for her husband for fifty years, smashing through the walls between dimensions and giving people nightmares. She's abandoned her children, now grown, and somehow still looks about the age of their children, or even younger. The last time she saw her granddaughter Antimony, she learnt news that changed everything and gave her hope again. We meet her as she back onto Earth, right before her infamous Healy luck points her in a new direction. It might be a trap. It might be the answer to everything. It's definitely going to be a wild ride.
Alive has a very different perspective from her grandkids. She's older, far more cynical, and her focus is finding Thomas, with neither Covenant nor cryptozoology in sight. She's cheerful and damaged and tremendous fun to read even as you groan at some of her choices. She makes a lot more sense now I've read her backstory.
I'm trying not to gush but my flatmate caught me grinning at my phone during one particular fight scene and I found myself going back to reread choice bits (and then found myself rereading pretty much all of it). There's a bit of body horror and references to Alice's very poor parenting, but if you've read any of this series and enjoyed it, you will love this. I'd just recommend reading the Patreon stories for it to have maximum impact. It feels like a culmination, but it also feels like an inflection point, and I can't wait to see where the Price-Healy family do next.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley; all opinions are my own
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